Should you go to University?

It’s drilled into our heads throughout our education that it is expected of us to go to university and get a degree before getting a job. It’s not until it actually comes to applying for university that you realise for yourself that actually it isn’t necessary and there is a lot more that you could be doing with your life. That then leads to the question that I think everybody asks themselves, should I go to university?

Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question for you, everyone is different and what may be right for you may be different for someone else. You have to assess your situation and discover whether or not university would be best for you. I thought that I’d share with you my process of deciding to go to university and the application process so far. Hopefully my experiences will help you when deciding what is right.

I’ve always said that I was going to go to uni, I thought I had to! Until I was 15 and finishing my GCSE’s I didn’t know that colleges, apprenticeships and internships were a legitimate thing that you could do. I’m not sure if it was the overly academic focused school that I went to or just the area that I grew up in but my education was all about getting the high grades to move on to the next stage of education. When I decided not to go to my secondary school’s sixth form and go to an independent one in the city centre, thats when I saw a new side to education. Everyone was so different, equality was celebrated and you were encouraged to achieve whatever it was that you wanted to do in life (and get the grades to achieve it obviously). It was more fun and as I’m here moping around because one of my teachers is leaving on Friday I’m realising how much I’ve enjoyed my past two years at the sixth form. That’s how education should be, fun and enjoyable. This is what inspired my decision to apply for social universities rather than the Russell group academic, high achievers universities. If you would prefer to attend these universities, go ahead and apply! As long as you work hard for it then theres nothing to stop you going but you have to look at your history with education and evaluate whether you’ll enjoy that, after all it is the next 3 or more years of your life.

I have applied for Film and Media based degrees as this is the subject that I’m most passionate about and I would love to work in social media or journalism when I graduate. I’m not too sure what specific profession I’d like to go into so don’t ask me, the main reason I’m going to uni is to give me more time to think about that. If you need more time then why not apply for a subject you love, even if you think its unlikely that you’ll get a job in that subject. I personally think that its better to have the time to think and get a degree in anything rather than have a gap in your life of not doing anything and not knowing where to go from there, I’m sure employers in the future will agree with me on that one. Of course its not impossible to get a good job without a degree but it does provide some security as most employers do look for a degree on your CV.

Actually applying for university is an extensive and stressful activity but UCAS makes it as simple as possible. Next week I will be confirming my film and insurance offers which is nerve-wracking as I haven’t fully decided yet. Everything has to be taken into account, one uni might have a good course but shocking accommodation, another may be in the most perfect town ever but have a weak course, which sacrifice do you make?

The point of this article is to ensure you that its completely normal to not know yet, everyone has doubts and indecisiveness when it comes to one of the biggest decisions of your life, of course its stressful! Looking online for people in the same situation is great therapy for this and there are so many great sources for advise such as thestudentroom.com which comes from students themselves from the past and future.

Hope this was helpful, if you want more follow my trending stories: abby waugh